This page begins with July 12th and takes you through July 30th. There is ONLY this one page this month. There is a climb of Mt. Mutsu-Ishi and trips to Sawai and Mt. Takao. Click on any thumbnail to begin.

Begin July 12th & 13th

&nbsp On July 12th Kazuya and I hiked to the summit of Mt. Mutsu-Ishi (6 Stones Mountain) (1,479 meters = 4,852 feet) to camp-out there. The first 2 shots show 2 different kinds of Monotropa sp. - an orange tinted type and a white colored type. The 3rd shot is Kazuya at the summit of Mt. Mutsu-Ishi.

&nbsp The first shot in this row shows sunset clouds. The sunset was pretty clouded in with scattered showers, so there was not much to see. The sunrise of July 13, however, was very nice. The 2nd photo shows the sun JUST as it poked its head above the horizon. The 3rd shot shows the sun a bit higher above the horizon.

&nbsp The first shot in this row shows Okutama Lake from near the bottom of the trail we used to come down the mountain. Then - we were shocked to see a Japanese Serow (Capricornis crispus) or a "Kamoshika" in Japanese, standing right beside the road as we left the trail coming down the mountain. We could not believe our eyes. The first shot shows it eating some vegetation, the 2nd shot shows how close to the road it was - that is the guard rail you see behind it.

&nbsp The 1st shot shows how close it came to me before turning around. The next shot shows the animal with leaves in its mouth. The final shot shows it after it had seen us and decided that it should go back the other way. It jumped the guard rail and went running down the road!! What an incredible thing to see.

&nbsp On July 29th Kazuya had to work, but I had both the 29th and 30th free, so I climbed Mt. Takao for the 48th time and camped out at I-Ccho-Daira to escape the heat of the city! The first shot in this row is a nearly mature fruit of Helwingia japonica - notice that this bush has the fruits in the center of the leaves. The 2nd shot is a very beautiful Mountain Lily and the 3rd shot is a flowering head of what translates from Japanese as "Tiger's Tail".

&nbsp The first shot here is another Mountain Lily. The 2nd shot is a huge thunder head which rolled in during mid-afternoon, didn't get any rain though. The 3rd shot is a butterfly on a "Tiger's Tail" flowerhead.

&nbsp The first shot here is a small group of Red Pines with sunset lighting on the trunks, which really accentuates the red color. The 2nd and 3rd shots are a butterfly which I photographed on my wany down the mountain on the 30th.

By the way - Kazuya is still maintaining his blog, which exhibits different photos than shown here (mostly - I have used some of his though). It looks very nice and you can find it HERE. (Click on the "Studies of Plants and Wildlife" link in the new window.)

And, that shows you what we saw from July 12th through July 30th. That's all there is for this month. Thanks so much for taking the time to look. Comments via e-mail are ALWAYS welcome.

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